Weber SmokeFire EX4 Wood Fired Pellet Grill, Black, 2nd Generation

Upgraded from an electric smoker because it could not maintain a constant temperature when the outside temp dropped below 50 degrees. After a couple of rebuilds of the electric cooker I upgraded. Little did I know the Weber Smokefire EX4 was in a total different league. Just set the temperature on the console or App and it ignites, heats up to the desired temp and maintains until you change it. Regardless of the external temp. Below are some of the features I love: * The smoke boost function adds the extra smoke flavor that is sometimes missing in a Pellet smoker * Solid build * Wheels make it easy to roll across the deck when used * Easy start - just set temperature * Auto shut-down, just push the button on the app * Adjust the cook temperature from the app anywhere * Temperature probes send the temp info to the app and charts * Great recipes in the app * Easy cleanup * Great results I have had excellent results smoking wings, chicken, 14 pound turkey (guess when), calzones, ribs and a Boston Butt.

I've been a smoker for decades, but the Weber Smokey Mountain is a bit of a pain setting up, cleaning up, and needs to be manually controlled. This marvel of automation is so convenient, whether you are just searing a couple steaks, or going low and slow. Love the app, software interface, hoping this holds up. Tech is great until it stops working. Had a few bad starts early on, think I was closing lid before enough smoke was coming out. Then you have to go into a 15 minute shut down cycle, then restart, bit of a PITA I wish can be overrode. But I think I have it figured out now. Bit of a problem doing firmware updates when I first got it, managed to get past that too. Last Prime Day, got it for $475. Then cancelled and reordered when it fell to $425 next day. Great bang for the buck, they sell a nice aftermarket cover for it on here too. Biggest expense was the pellets, bought about 100 lbs in different varieties, and the buckets to store them in from Lowes. Stupid lids were almost as much as the buckets.

Save your money. The Weber SmokeFire EX4 (2nd Gen) Wood Fired Pellet Grill is garbage!! I was really high on this Pellet grill and really wanted to love it. I read the horrible reviews and saw the YouTube videos stating to stay away. My long time ReqTec 590 died and I was looking for a replacement. Low and behold Prime Day comes along and the Weber SmokeFire EX4 (2nd Gen) is on sale for $429.99. I am thinking at half off I could deal with a few quirks if the grill delivered excellent BBQ. The problems started with the long, convoluted and confusing assembly process. Took three hours to assemble and figure out how to install the glow plug. Tried to get guidance from YouTube but Weber had jerry rigged and changed the parts so many times on this grill that all the Weber instructional videos had different parts and were useless! Burn in went well so I had high hopes. The problems started right away. Fired up the Smoke Fire to cook some St. Louis ribs and started out with the smoke boost and boy was it working fine. 1 hour into the cook the smoke was gone and the grill was not warm. A few minutes later I got a notice on the app saying the flame was out and it was completing a forced shutdown. Pulled the grill apart and there was a mountain of pellets in the fire pot that put out the flame. Cleaned out the pellets and fired the grill up and everything was working fine, and 1-hour later 2nd flame out warning from the app. Took the grill apart and same issue; mountain of pellets put out the flame. Cleaned out the fire pot again and started the grill again. 1 hour later you guested it mountain of pellets puts out the flame. Me being stupid cleaned out the fire pot for a 4th time on the same cook only to have the flame put out by a mountain of pellets. All this happen during my 1st cook!! Finally gave up and finished the ribs in the oven 4 hours after my planned dinner time. All the negative reviews are correct on this pellet grill. It is not set it and forget it. It is more hands-on maintenance than cooking with charcoal. There is no way I could trust this grill for a long overnight porkbutt or brisket cook. I really wanted to love this grill, the sear mode looked promising, the smoke boost put out fantastic smoke and the built quality of the grill is excellent. There are just too may design and execution flaws that doom the grill. With all the negative reviews about dealing with Weber Customer service I was not going to roll the dice and bet that this grill’s problems could be fixed by working with Weber and I had to return the Weber SmokeFire EX4 1 week after it was delivered.

I am still giving this 3 stars because when it did work, it was amazing. However, after 4 cooks, I have a Fan Error(E2). I have followed the diagnostics but no luck. I need to order another fan.